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December 20, 2008

Once a lake, now a canyon

WHOI researchers took a 40 minute hike from their camp on Greenland's ice sheet this summer to this lake bed (full, it measured more than 3 kilometers in diameter). An astounding crack split the bed, stretching about 15 city blocks, and the bed was full of arches, caves, and protruding knobs shaped by flowing water and summer sun. Research on the ice sheet was conducted by scientists Sarah Das and Mark Behn, along with colleagues at the University of Washington, to investigate glacial lakes. These form atop the ice sheet each spring and summer as returning sunlight melts ice and snow.
(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)